[From Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali: Song Offerings, a new translation by William Radice (Penguin India, New Delhi, 2011), pp. 78-9. Used by kind permission of William Radice. Copyright William Radice.]

Streams of light for sails of thousands
of butterflies;
Waves of light where dancing jasmines
buoyantly rise.
Streams of light for sails of thousands
of butterflies;
Waves of light where dancing jasmines
buoyantly rise.

Gold in the sky, jewels in the clouds beyond compare;Smiling trees, oh brothers, heaps of joy in the air.Overflowing heavenly river, nectar hurled;Light, light, light, oh light
that fills the world!
Eye-bathing light by which
our hearts are swirled.[1]

[1] From Tagore’s play Achalayatan (1912). See Introduction, p. xliv. Although it is a song with a splendid melody, and I have given the repetitions it has when sung, it also has the energy of a poem, so I have used metre and rhyme as well. (W.R.)